Know this: Batman Arkham Knight: The Riddler’s Gambit is a fantastic read and a fantastic Batman story. It fits in with the Arkham universe well and gets you ready for Rocksteady’s Batman: Arkham Knight.

I need to add here that it was AMAZING to finally be moving forward in the Batman Arkham Universe. I’ve spent so much time exploring the past that the newness I found here was a joy to read.

Reading through the book it’s hard to put it down; author Alex Irvine keeping things moving at a fast clip while still giving all the main players a chance to have their moments of reflection.

The story takes place about four months after the conclusion of Batman: Arkham City; the void left by the death of the Joker in the criminal underworld is begging to be filed and the Riddler sees this as his chance to step up.

I enjoyed how the book gave him a chance to be center stage; Riddler has always been a side player in the games and it was fun to have the character realize this as well.

Getting his due

The clues and puzzles throughout the book are well done in that they are tricky yet believable, with our heroes coming off as just clever as the Riddler for figuring things out despite the deadly situations he puts them in.

Format and the Option to Leave

The format of the book contains what I’ll call a Grapes-of-Wrath-type of interlude where the main action is broken up by a shorter chapters of a different type, giving us Continue reading →

The Batman: Arkham City prequel comic is a great direct lead-in to the game. Like Road to Arkham walked you right up to the start of Batman: Arkham Asylum, the City comic does a fantastic job of getting you ready to dive into the game that shares its name.

The strongest point of this work is how Dr. Hugo Strange is set up to be an intellectually equal opponent to Batman. Using both mayor Quincy Sharp and the Trask brother and sister to push Gotham to not only accept martial law but the building of Arkham City shows Strange as a master of getting events to head in the direction he wants them to go.

Strange’s machinations almost wipe out the Dark Knight, but thanks to Catwoman’s unlooked-for rescue he’s able to survive. Here again we see Dr. Strange’s obsession and study of Batman, almost catching him for the last time.

I enjoyed how Strange knew that Batman would come and search through Mayor Sharp’s files to try to find out more about him, then next simply observing Bruce’s movement as he infiltrated both Joker and Penguin’s gangs. Studying an opponent to find a weakness is something we’ve seen the Dark Knight do again and again, so here we see how Hugo’s methods stack up – they stack up well.

There are other details that add to the story; Harley Quinn saving the Joker from guards who wanted revenge, the perspective of the Joker that they “got in” to Arkham first and could set up a new criminal enterprise unencumbered, etc. These points give us more insight into everyone’s head and where things are headed.

Strange gets the final word in the last issue (“Exposure”) however, and it’s fitting as he lays out his strategy and the current state of the Arkham-verse going through each of the other players in the drama, how their goals (and indeed their persons) are inferior to his, and how Batman is his only real opponent:

Only you are capable of comprehending the true stakes of this life and death game.

Hugo Strange’s summation is the perfect send-off for this story and setup for the next one. Well done.

Batman: Arkham City End Game has been the most rewarding of the extended storied around the Arkham-verse that I’ve read. The art style and story shine and add to the overall Arkham experience by not just giving you more to know about the characters, but by making you feel more for them as well.

With how many twists Arkham City had and how devious the Joker had been set up to be this comic had to be written in order to show that the he was actually gone. And how is that final end portrayed?

Image courtesy of IGN

There’s only one way to go to make sure someone’s really dead – incinerator.

The art style – more than the other Arkham comics I’ve read – has an impact on the mood of the story, giving it a mystical and solemn vibe. Continue reading →

I’m marching towards Batman: Arkham Knight and before playing it I want to wrap up any extended lore from the previous games. First up, the Arkham Unhinged comic book series.

There are 58 issues is all and the canonization is a bit fuzzy as things don’t always match up with the games but I think there are elements that can be mined to enhance one’s experience of the Batman Arkham series.

Unhinged has been described as a prequel but it goes all over the all place. While this makes it Continue reading →

This is the sixth and final entry on my play through of Batman: Arkham City. Be ye warned that there will be spoilers for as far as I’ve played and please avoid spoilers for me if you have any comments concerning future segments of the game

Since the Joker’s death at the end of Arkham City, Harley Quinn has been grieving in her own way by taking over the gang and planning a trap for the Dark Knight.

Grieving her own way

While being even more silent then usual at the conclusion of City proper, neither Robin or Oracle has heard from Batman since he went into the Joker’s recent haunts to stop whatever Quinn was up to. Continue reading →

This is the fifth entry on my play through of Batman: Arkham City. Be ye warned that there will be spoilers for as far as I’ve played and please avoid spoilers for me if you have any comments concerning future segments of the game

It was a battle to get here but this is it – I’ve faced countless thugs and the bitter cold in a city run by madmen, to find myself here at the end of this adventure. Let’s talk about it!

Strange Days

Confronting Dr. Hugo Strange was epic, but the man behind the madness of Wonder Tower disappointed me in his motivations.

Black gloves continue to get a bad reputation

The prequel comics and game did a good job of presenting Strange as the mastermind, so when he mentioned a “master” just before his climactic last stand I didn’t know where things would go. However having Ra’s al Ghul be that puppet master was a let down, and it’s my own fault.

We watched the final episode of the BBC’s Wallander entitled “The Troubled Man” based on the book of the same name by Swedish author Henning Mankell this past Sunday (10/16/16) evening, and it was a calm and thoughtful end to a great series.

(Spoilers follow)

This final fourth series ended with Kurt Wallander more at peace then we’ve seen him up to this point. Instead of drinking himself to self-destruction, the detective is exercising and spending more time with his daughter and granddaughter.

While I usually like a show to keep going if the quality is there, Wallander reminded me that keeping things at a certain clip (four series is this case) means that the main characters are made to grow – you don’t have years and years for them to stay the same and only make a change at the very end.

a cold cup of Sweden

(Sidenote – I believe roughly half of the script was Kenneth Branagh frantically looking about and saying, “Hakan?”)

I also appreciated that Kurt survived to make that growth, to see his memory slipping and accept what’s happening instead of going down in a tragic/heroic gunshot. The rifle he slung across his back gave me pause on that, but all turned out well-ish.

His father showing up at the end was a nice touch as well.

On a show that paired a bleak landscape with even bleaker human nature, to have Wallander find a measured peace was fresher than the wind blowing off the nearest fjord.

I watched Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (theatrical version) last night and did so with the understanding that it was not reviewed well.

But that’s a good thing – when you go in with low expectations, the movie almost always turns out better then you thought it would.

Unfortunately that’s not the case (for me) with Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice – I’m interested to see where the DC Extended Universe goes from here, but this movie was a rough ride.

Biggest Issue

The biggest issue I had with the movie was the realization of Lex Luthor. I could not get on board with how they portrayed the character, and this is coming from someone who’s not steeped in DC lore. It wasn’t a “he-doesn’t-match-with-who-I-thought-he-should-be” thing, it’s a “he’s-more-annoying-than-evil” thing. Continue reading →